...................................For a personal view of Felsham parish politics and local history

Friday, 29 August 2014

On the night of 24th January 1889 ...

On the night of 24th January 1889, the people of Felsham, Gedding, Rattlesden and
Woolpit were involved in an event that created such as “stir” that even the
oldest inhabitants of the area could remember nothing like it. A local newspaper reported that at nine o’clock “the parish bells sent forth a merry peal, and the
excitement which had been showing itself during the day became intense.”

The village was Rattlesden
and the event that created such a “stir” was the election of a County Councillor for
the Rattlesden Division in the newly formed West Suffolk Council.

TheLocal Government Act of 1888 set up the County
Councils of West Suffolk and East Suffolk.
Prior to 1888, apart from the borough corporations, Suffolk
had been administered by magistrates meeting in quarter sessions, one in the
east at Ipswich
and one in the west at Bury. From 1889 County administration passed from
appointed magistrates to elected councillors.

The Rattlesden Division was
contested by two members of the local Conservative Association: one was Mr Duncan
Parker, JP, living at The Grange, Woolpit Green and the other was Mr John Anderson, a retired barrister, who resided at Yewlands in Felsham. The
Parkers were a well-established family with roots in both Woolpit and
Rattlesden; while the Anderson family were well-known for their good works in both
Felsham and Gedding over many decades.
Their respective supporters tended to align themselves according to
whether they lived in one or other of the two sets of villages.

The election campaign began
in earnest in December 1888 when a meeting of electors was held at RattlesdenSchool where both candidates addressed the audience which
contained a large and unruly group from Felsham. The Bury & Norwich Post reported what happened:

“Unfortunately the rough
element preponderated in the audience, and as it seemed friendly disposed
towards Mr Anderson, that gentleman obtained a good hearing. On Mr Parker rising, however, the hitherto
placid state of the meeting was displaced in favour of a most riotous
scene. Hooting and braying was indulged
in while Mr Parker was endeavouring to speak, and he ultimately had to desist…”

The ringleader of the “rough
element” may well have been a Felsham farmer named Samuel Scott from Brook Hall
Farm. There are two pieces of evidence from local newspaper accounts that support this conjecture. Firstly, Samuel
Scott was John Anderson’s main supporter having nominated him for
election. Secondly, this same farmer had
been involved in a fracas on Felsham Upper Green during an election rally three years earlier when he and other young farmers had fought
with labourers from Rattlesden.

John Anderson appears to have been the favourite candidate.
Certainly, his supporters worked hard to secure his success in the weeks leading
up to the election. The Ipswich Journal
(1st
February 1889) reported that:

“Mr Anderson’s agents have
been assiduously busy in the four parishes in spotting and counting voters, at
one time even declaring they could command 150 in Rattlesden alone out of its
214, the largest of the four. In the
distant parts of the parish people were called up at night even, and some in a
semi-frightened state suggested the “Jack the Ripper” had made his appearance.” [It needs to be remembered that reports of
the horrific killings in London
were in all the newspapers at this time.]

The election took place on
Thursday 24th January and the results were:

Parker 270

Anderson 197

Majority 73

Despite the concerted barracking of
their opponent at public meetings and despite their energetic canvassing of the neighbourhood electors, the
Felsham faction was left licking its wounds. The Ipswich Journal reported that John Anderson was magnanimous in
defeat. He “thanked his supporters, and
was sure they would find in Mr Parker a worthy gentleman as CountyCouncillor, and hoped that no ill-feeling would be shown between
the people of the different parishes.” As the evening progressed, “the
Felsham people began to draw off, evidently downcast at the result, while some
of Mr Parker’s supporters were enjoying the ditty of ‘O dear, what can the
matter be?’ Between ten and eleven o’clock the parish bells ceased ringing, and
the usual quietude of the village was apparent, but never in the remembrance of
the oldest inhabitant had there been such a “stir” as in the election of the
first County Councillor for the Rattlesden Division.”

****************

Note on the Conservatives:The politics of the Conservative Party at this time was coloured by its opposition to Irish Home Rule and its coalition with the Liberal Unionists. Much of the rhetoric was similar to that currently taking place concerning an independent Scotland. In October 1887 Duncan Parker addressed the audience at the Annual Dinner of the Woolpit Working Mens' Conservative Association:

Bury & Norwich Post, 4 Oct 1887

Note on the social composition of the new West Suffolk Council:

The new Council was dominated by Justices of the Peace. JPs had previously had an important role in administering local affairs at the Quarter Sessions so it was hardly surprising that they retained their interest within the new arrangements. Farmers in the village divisions also predominated while tradespeople such as ironmongers, wine merchants and hotel proprietors held sway in the town divisions such as Bury St Edmunds.

Note on John Thomas AndersonThomas Anderson’s eldest son, John Thomas
Anderson, had returned from Canada
soon after the death of his father. He
lived in Bury St Edmunds for a while and then moved to Yewlands [Felsham House] after the death
of his sister, Mary. He carried on
living at Yewlands with his wife, Mary Montgomerie, for twelve years until his
death, at the age of 72, in April 1894.
Apparently, their initials appear on the dining room mantle-piece with
the date 1883, when four large rooms were added to the house. His tragic death was reported in the Bury & Norwich Post: